An online analysis into relevant case study

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Online research and Concept Journal—Proposal

First of all, the area that I am interested in is Beauty and Fashion. Plastic Surgery is a very common phenomenon and social issue in recent years. In this Society, everyone values appearance. There are people who are being discriminated because of their perceived ugly appearance. Beauty or Beast? will be an online interactive documentary that allows users to learn about Plastic Surgery and the positive and negative aspects of it. It will also become a neutral forum to fresh viewer’s ideas and to start a broad discussion to why such social issue exist.

The reason of named the title as Beauty or Beast? is that I am aiming to warn people about Plastic Surgery could be a wrong thing to do, and aiming to highlight that meanwhile you are expecting the good looking outcome after the surgery, there is a very high risk of surgery failure which will cause regrets and serious consequences for the whole life.

The main idea surrounding this project will be regarding the concept of beauty and the extreme pursuit of beauty might bring negative effects. It will not only provide all the facts of plastic surgery to audience, but it will also provide a section which inform audience the other ways of becoming a beauty, such as effective exercise and how to adjust your psychological status. Essentially, this will be exploring how the concept affects self-identity and people pursuit beauty through plastic surgery. These will be compiled together and showcase an interactive project.

Research into Similar Projects

I have been searched for similar projects online. There are quite a few projects that are similar to my project ideas. One of them is ‘Doll Face: A Plastic Surgery Documentary’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbBem8H6HS4 Although its said as an online documentary, but in my opinion, it is not totally an online documentary, its only available on Youtube and there is no other relevant information about the video and there is not a website for it. But the content in the video is quite similar to my structured content in the video.

Another similar project that I found online is a website called ‘Surgery Shock—Plastic Surgery truths, rumors and realities’

I viewed it as an online documentary, because it’s a whole project which contains website interface design, social media platform, videos and articles. The whole website project is focus on Plastic Surgery. I like its interface design as its straightforward and simple.

The documentary will contain blog and articles on Plastic Surgery. Blogs of Plastic Surgery doctors, patients and news could be used. There will be a Q & A section on expert talk and advice on Plastic Surgery, such as invites one of the famous plastic surgery doctor in Sydney. For the video section, I propose to do an interview with plastic surgery doctor, interview with people who have done plastic surgery and people who have encountered with surgery failure. It will also take shots on the street and trying to interview the pedestrian about their attitudes about it. Important Facts will be read out in the video. In addition, there will be a particular section invites audience to share their stories. This documentary will also be available on audio, for the audio section, it will be similar to the video section. The images will largely source from the Plastic Surgery websites and patient blogs.

Target Audience

This documentary largely targets people of all ages, shapes and sizes. It may greatly and especially appeal to women who perceived themselves as ugly and need help as well as women who are seeking perfection to reach her beauty standard and tech savvy and seek advices online. The audience will be offered interactive content through sharing stories and discussion in online forum. This is aiming to provide a personal experience to audience.

Features

 Video and Image Gallery

 Audio Files

 Online discussion forum

 Expert Q&A

 Articles on different kinds of Plastic Surgery and care instructions

 Polls

 Case study

 Blogs from doctors, patients and others

 Featured Beauty Care advices and exercise

 Featured recipes

Social Media & Community Engagement

Social media platforms will be integrated into the project and the icons for links will be put on the home page. The main social media platforms will be used including Facebook, twitter and tumblr. Audience can share this documentary on to their social media platforms thus it can publicize the website as well as connecting with other communities. Video and audio share links will also be provided for audience to share to other forum. Additionally, a page for this documentary will be specially created on these social media platform; it is also another way to allow users to share their ideas after watching the video. In order to increase user participation and gain publicity, these pages will be continuously updated with upcoming videos, images and articles.

Platform

This documentary is a multiplatform documentary as it will not only be available online. The web documentary will be delivered in a digital format and accessible by all web users on HTML5 which based on web 2.0. HTML5 is the most popular multimedia interface. In order to increase user participation, the documentary will also be delivered on broadcast radio. The documentary will also be available on smartphones and tablets which can provide users with mobility and convenience.

Interface Design & User Experience

– LAYOUT

From the above diagram, it can be seen that there are six sub-pages under the home page. This is a draft diagram of the website page and there are no words, files and videos in it. Firstly I have used a big section to highlight Plastic Surgery and there will be a picture for the blank beside the words. This can highlight the main theme and topic of the documentary. In my opinion, the whole layout of homepage is quite straightforward. Under the first big section, there are a widget box including the latest two videos which will also be updated in the future, and other sections. So audience can easily access and browse what information it contains. Under the title, there is a navigation bar, which directs audiences to different pages. Social media platform is designed to locate on the left top under the navigation bar to remind audience that they can share the website. The main sections are concentrated on the home page. The discussion forum also shown on the left, it delivers interactive elements of the site to audiences and invites their participation. Only two videos will be put in the section because there are more videos in the videos page and these are just giving audiences a reminder that they can watch videos. Overall, the whole design for the home page is basing on the concept simple. The information is straightforward for audiences to see.

For the fonts that will be used in website, the words will be used in bold, italic and in different colour sizes to distinguish the primary important message, the secondary important message and to highlight other relevant information.

Therefore, when users click into the page, they will feel the website is rich of information and not boring. More pictures will be added into the page when it’s implementing.

– Here’s the wireframe for the whole pages of project structures:

Technical Feasibility

This web documentary is a technically feasible project. Video and audio accessibility is very important; if the format is not strictly right some users might not able to see the video on their computers. Thus the documentary will be designed to use Adobe Flash, which is a common and basic digital player application. Other technical issues include the editing for the pages, the display of pictures and forums. Discussion Forum section will be built in and pictures will be displayed by Flash in GIF and JPG formats. Since it’s a web documentary, it can be accessed through Google Chrome, Safari or Firefox web browser, smartphones browsers and application, ipad.

Moral/Ethical Considerations

Since whole project is about beauty and plastic surgery, there is risk of being misunderstood and wrongly interpreted by audience, such as the documentary is judging people’s appearance and beauty standard. Everyone naturally has their own beauty standard and this is a very subjective issue. Thus in order to avoid any possible connection with the above risk and any appearance assault issue, the language of this documentary will be neutral and be delivered in an objective tone. All the facts mentioned in the documentary will be supported by and sourced from academics and experts.

Conclusion

Overall, this documentary targets everyone and aims to raise the awareness of Plastic Surgery. Plastic Surgery is a common social phenomenon nowadays, because of the extreme pursuit of beauty perfection there are women have been addicted to it. However, Plastic Surgery could also ruin your life if the surgery is not successful, it will cause worse effects to your life. This documentary is aimed to remind people that plastic surgery is not the only way of the pursuit of beauty. This documentary is designed to be delivered through website, smartphones application and broadcast radio, as to increase its accessibility to audience. If this documentary is chosen to be implemented, more details and information would need to be added in.